Auditions

Alchemyregularly hold auditions and always welcome new choir members who are committed and talented. We are not a community choir in the sense that singers just turn up and anyone can join. Alchemy A Cappella singers must be able to sing, sing in pitch and on key and be able to learn quickly.

Contact Ronelle Knowles: 0419621751,
to get the venue details and ask any questions you may have.

We need all parts but, of course, mainly male tenors and basses.

Audition requirements

Learn part of a new song with the choir

Prepare a solo piece (after a short tea break)

Demonstrate vocal range

Demonstrate pitch ability

Demonstrate personal style

Read on for more details

Preparing to audition

Alchemy wants to make your audition as easy as possible.

Learning a song with the choir

It's not Australian Idol! This is why we get you to learn a song with us first so you don't walk into a room full of strangers and have to sing.

Prepare a solo piece

We don't need a full 3 minute song. About a minute or so is enough. We just want to hear that you can carry a tune on your own, and hear the unique qualities of your voice. Please don't sing the full song - although if you're really nervous you might need a bit more time to get into the song, so we're not that strict!

We also get to hear if you can stay in key, on time, pitch each note precisely and hold a note for a reasonable length.

Song choice

Gospel songs (Amazing Grace, People Get Ready), pop ballads (Yesterday by the Beatles, Breathe by Ricky) or torchlight jazz songs (Summertime, Nature Boy). Ballads from musicals, eg Close Every Door (Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat) or The Music of the Night (Phantom), Aquarius (Hair).

No fast pop tunes. Choose something melodic that can show the qualities we're looking for. Something with a bit of range - not a song with the same three notes.

Vocal range

As musical director and conductor, I need to see what your highest and lowest notes are, and whether or not you can follow me up the piano as I play each note. This tests your pitch as well as your range. You will be singing Laaah Laaah Laaah up and down the piano.

Musical Knowledge

Having a basic knowledge of music and music notation is useful when singing with a choir. Being able to "sight-sing" - ie read the music and sing at the same time - is also useful. If you can't "sight-sing" we really want you to be able to memorise a part off-by-heart. IE you should be able to sing back what is being taught to you and memorise it.

However, if you can't read music or don't have musicianship skills, but can sing up a storm (& can memorise a part), you are still welcome to audition.

The musical director tries to incorporate a bit of music theory into the rehearsals.

For example:

A rhythm-based warmup to help the choir learn triplets - a scale might be sung with three notes to each beat instead of four.

Singing the harmonic minor scale to help with singing songs in minor keys.

After a successful audition

After your audition you may be offered a trial period of four rehearsals, so that you can see if being in the group fits in with your life, and we can see if you fit in with the group!

We are a close group of strangers who have become friends through a common love of singing... the atmosphere is one of respect and fun. It is family-friendly & quite a social group.

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Alchemy A Cappella is committed to protecting your personal data and will use any personal or sensitive data we collect from you. In Europe, this is in line with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

What data do you collect and what do you use it for?

Alchemy A Cappella collects data from individuals to help us plan, organise and run the day-to-day operations of the group (e.g. co-ordinating rehearsals or collecting subscription payments) and to promote and market the group’s activities (e.g. marketing mailing lists and photography/video capture).

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When you join Alchemy A Cappella as a member, or during your membership with us, we may need to collect some of the following information on you:

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This data will be used by our admin team to manage your membership with Alchemy A Cappella and to organise and run our activities.

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We offer everybody the opportunity to sign up (consent) to receive marketing and promotional information on the group’s activities (e.g. emails about forthcoming events).

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We will never pass your details on to third parties for marketing purposes.

Are there special measures for children’s data?

We do not knowingly collect or store any personal data about children under the age of 13.

How I can I get you to update my data?

You can contact us at any time to update or correct the data we hold on you.

How long will you hold my data?

The Alchemy A Cappella data retention policy is to review all data held on individuals at least every two years and remove data where we no longer have a legitimate reason to keep it.

Where you have withdrawn your consent for us to use your data for a particular purpose (e.g. unsubscribed from a mailing list) we may retain some of your data for up to two years in order to preserve a record of your consent having been withdrawn.

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Under the European GDPR, you have the following rights over your data and its use:

The right to be informed about what data we are collecting on you and how we will use it

The right of access - you can ask to see the data we hold on you

The right to rectification - you can ask that we update or correct your data

The right to object - you can ask that we stop using your data for a particular purpose

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The right to restrict processing - you can ask that we temporarily stop using your data while the reason for its use or its accuracy are investigated

Though unlikely to apply to the data we hold and process on you, you also have rights related to portability and automated decision making (including profiling)

All requests related to your rights should be made through our Contact page. We will respond within one month.

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If we make changes to our privacy statements or processes we will post the changes here. Where the changes are significant, we may also choose to email individuals affected with the new details. Where required by law, will we ask for your consent to continue processing your data after these changes are made.

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